Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ocean Energy Tech To Be Tested Off Australian Coast

Posted by Soulskill on from the wave-of-the-future dept.

cylonlover writes "The researchers at Australia's BioPower Systems evidently looked at kelp, and thought, 'what if we could use that swaying action to generate power?' The result was their envisioned bioWAVE system: 'At the base of each bioWAVE system would be a triangular foundation, keeping it anchored to the sea floor. Extending up from the middle of that foundation would be a central column, topped with multiple blades — these would actually be more like a combination of the kelp's blades and floats, as they would be cylindrical, buoyant structures that just reach to the surface. The column would join the foundation via a hinged pivot, allowing it to bend or swivel in any direction. Wave action (both at the surface and below) would catch the blades and push them back and forth, in turn causing the column to move back and forth relative to the foundation. This movement would pressurize fluid within an integrated hydraulic power conversion module, known as an O-Drive. The movement of that fluid would spin a generator, converting the kinetic energy of the waves into electricity, which would then be delivered to shore via subsea cables.'"

20 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Blades? by cyachallenge · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news a new alternative energy project provides free fish blending service for Austrailian sharks.

    1. Re:Blades? by skids · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not blades. RTFA. Or even, just LTFP (look at the fine picture.)

      Have to say my favorite among the wave/tidal is the Pelamis though. Only needs a small mooring and easily towed around from park to park to deal with seasonal demands.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
  2. Re:Funny that people assume this isn't harmful. by skids · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, I think it would be fair to say that until motorboats are banned these shouldn't be either.

    --
    Someone had to do it.
  3. This is great! by NEDHead · · Score: 3, Funny

    Will it fit in my car?

  4. Re:Same as it ever was by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's what geothermal energy is for.

    Ideally, you would combine gravity + oceans + geothermal:
    * Siphon water off the ocean
    * It falls down a long tunnel, turning a fan
    * It heats up, goes up another shaft turning fan #2
    * Redirect the vapor back into shaft 1

    With wave & geothermal, we [would] all the energy we need.

  5. Well by ShooterNeo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why didn't we do this before? I see nothing in this article describing anything in the technology that wasn't technically possible 20 or 40 years ago. There's not even sophisticated CFD behind the design : it appears to just be a float on the end of a rod.

    That isn't good for it's future prospects, then : if the technology has not advanced, then likely this machine will face the difficulties that they had last time they tried this.

    I'm imagining all kinds of horrible sea life buildup and corrosion and damage in storms causing it to be uneconomical. Each unit has a whole generator, transformer, cables, everything that it needs to support.

    1. Re:Well by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They could just be suckers(or playing the investors for suckers); but it could also be that, while most of the rough geometry-level stuff has been obvious for some time, advances in materials will make the thing work better in practice...

      Moving parts + marine environment = endless well of maintenance and sorrow. It wouldn't too much surprise me if a dash of some of the cooler fluorocarbon polymers and elastomers could add years to the service life of something that would otherwise be spending more time in the shop than in the chop...

    2. Re:Well by WaffleMonster · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't know, if deep enough underwater storms won't really effect it.

      Since its producing energy anyway you could easily run some current to provide active corrosion resistance.

      Anti fouling coatings are avaliable although this will certainly remain a maintenance item.

      Seems like a simple enough design that it might work... I think at the end of the day feasibility will be driven more by economies of scale and steady build up of dead labor engineering costs out of the system.

    3. Re:Well by Hadlock · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Agreed, the mechanical problem is something that could have resolved in the 1880s. It's the fact that you're immersing these in a solution that is 3.5% salt, and then moving them through a 45 degree arc every 10-15 seconds. Corrosion is going to be a huge problem, and those hydraulic cylinders are going to wear out pretty quickly. Material science can probably fix that, but to make cheap, green power you need to build things not made from unobtanium.
       
      Perhaps if the generator were integrated better in to the system, this would look more likely, but the modular design has be skeptical.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    4. Re:Well by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      advances in materials will make the thing work better in practice...

      You're making an assumption that the people know what they are doing rather than just putting a piece of kit together out of any metal they can find.

      We have a desalination plant in Australia which rusted out before it even finished construction. I kid you not, someone built something that goes into the ocean with the wrong metallurgy.

  6. Re:Same as it ever was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think tides are caused by the moon...waves are caused by wind

  7. Not the only swinging float wave system by ZombieEngineer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Another system just off the coast of Fremantle, Australia (west coast of Australia) http://www.carnegiewave.com/index.php?url=/ceto/ceto-overview Does not produce electricity directly but very high pressure sea water which can then be used directly in a desalination plant and the waste run through a hydraulic turbine to generate mechanical / electrical energy. Given that wave energy is nearly constant around the clock, generating fresh water rather than electricity does have its advantages, doubly so in a very dry part of the world. ZombieEngineer

  8. Re:coolio! by DeathElk · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, worries mate. I'll fill you in early - it's a kangaroo powered beer and sausage machine. Still workin' on the wombat powered sauce dispenser though. Little bugger keeps drinkin' the sauce and keelin' over.

  9. Fish on tap by dbIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I did a bit of work at a pump storage mini-hydro plant once (only two little 250MW generators) which is used to supply power at peak times so operates at about the same time each day. Lined up at the netting designed to keep idiots from driving their skiboats up to the outlets were a lot of very large turtles and a cormorant on nearly every float - just waiting. Each day a lot of very confused fish get dumped at that spot.
    The turbines in that case wouldn't mince the fish - the blades are fairly blunt, run at relatively low revolutions and are so far apart that I entered the tunnel behind a turbine by climbing through a gap between two blades. Of course it was all shut down for the week with the pipework exiting the turbine removed.

  10. Some of those old ideas worked by dbIII · · Score: 3, Informative

    To be put more bluntly, every single one of these ends with a variation of 'maintenance costs exceeded projections and we're going to hold off on future deployment until the technology improves'.

    To put it more bluntly, you are not aware to the tidal power station that's been running at Le Havre since the 1950s (for example), so I think your blanket generalistion says more about yourself than any of the technologies in question.

  11. Re:Hardly a new idea by RazorSharp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Isn't the whole point of science to make the impossible possible?

    The Wright Brothers with your attitude: 'It's never been done before, even if in theory it could work. It's dangerous and costly, so we better stick with bicycles.'

    I find it hard to believe that harvesting oceanic energy efficiently is impossible just because there are many challenges associated with it and it has yet to be done successfully. It'll never happen if no one tries.

    --
    "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
  12. Why this technology is a non-starter by ShooterNeo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's a very, very simple reason why this tech isn't going anywhere. It has nothing to do with whether or not the maintainence problems are solvable at some cost.

    All wave energy is is water pushed by wind. Thus, you are capturing energy that was originally offshore winds. For any given number of dollars, you could try to tap this energy source by :

          Placing your device in the air, where all the internal workings are available for inspection and you can choose a location with relatively rare adverse weather events (like the interior of a country away from the coast)

        Placing your device under water, with all the maintenance costs that involves and the need for scuba gear and high $$$ divers to even work on it.

    Unless we somehow run out of good spots to put windmills on land, it will always make more sense to spend the next marginal dollar on another windmill (or solar panel, when the price per panel finally gets cheap enough)

    It's possible in theory that some day wave generators might be cheap enough to be worth using instead of burning natural gas or coal. But at that point, wind and/or solar will by definition be even cheaper THAN THAT because the same materials science that made the wave generators work has made the solar/wind even cheaper!

    1. Re:Why this technology is a non-starter by Zironic · · Score: 3, Informative

      Your conclusion does not follow from your premises. I can show you how absurd your argument is by re-framing it.

      All hydro energy is simply water that has rained down. Thus you are capturing energy that was originally rain. For any given number of dollars, you could try to tap this energy source by.

          Placing your device in the air, where all the internal workings are available for inspection and you can choose a location with relatively rare adverse weather events (like the interior of a country away from the coast)

      Placing your device under water, with all the maintenance costs that involves and the need for scuba gear and high $$$ divers to even work on it.

  13. Re:How will they deal with the temporal effects? by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You see it is THIS, this right here, that is the cancer ruining Slashdot.

    Once upon a time we had really good racist trolls, they were so subtle you wouldn't even catch the troll until the second paragraph. Like a good shit eater troll they would string you along, making you think it was a completely different post then WHAM, right in the balls.

    Our OS fanbois brought true entertainment value to this site, like how Twitter could take a story about shoes and twist it into a truly Machiavellian tale of power and betrayal that always led to a secret bunker in Redmond where Gates and the Illuminati planned the destruction of everything with GNU in it. Our shills so damned good that they could make you root for Union Carbide and even those against them believed they were real.

    Now like a TV series that has stay on long past the writers ability to think up new stories here lies the formerly great Slashdot. Once a great land where geeks fought epic battles about shit the common man couldn't even spell and where trolls pushed the limits simply to prove that they were the greatest in their fields. Now, sadly, it lies barren, where the best trolls can do is say the word nigger like a 3 year old saying dookie, the fanbois only call each other shill all day, and the geeks and their epic battles? The battlefield lies empty, their battles but fading echoes of a once great past. Truly a sad day my friends, truly a sad day.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  14. Re:Same as it ever was by dbIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I like the idea of geothermal but in most locations that involves very deep expensive holes and (ssh, don't tell anybody) lots of fracking. Getting a large temperature difference currently means fairly awkward locations.
    It's like hydro - with big mountains and lots of snow feeding big lakes it makes a lot of sense, and with geothermal it's only easy if there is a volcano not far away bringing all that heat to where you can get to it. High voltage DC means you can get that power to where it is needed but anything other than a small installation just under an existing power line is going to cost. It's the same thing that effectively killed all expansion of civilian nuclear decades ago - you need something very big and capital intensive to get any sort of decent generating capacity and nobody is putting up the money when they can speculate with it instead.